Decretum - New Vegas
by Scymour
Summary: [FULL DESCRIPTION INSIDE.] Armita is a Legion slave running from a past he can't shake and a present he can't find meaning in. Having escaped the Legion, he is taken in by Manny Vargas of Novac. At first content with his new life, Armita remembers his father who abandoned him, and decides to set out into the Mojave to find him. [Eventual OC x Arcade. Rating may go up...]
1. FULL DESCRIPTION

**Decretum**

**Full Description**

* * *

Armita is a Legion slave running from a past he can't shake and a present he can't find meaning in. Having miraculously pulled off a daring escape, he is taken in by Manny Vargas of Novac. There, it seems his life might be turning around, until memories of the three years he spent at his master's mercy rear their ugly heads. However memories of the Legion aren't the only ones Armita recalls, as memories of his father who abandoned him at a place called Bitter Springs begin surfacing as well. Determined to be reunited with the only family he's ever known, Armita sets out into the wasteland in search of his father.

But the Mojave's a big place, and there's still the war between the New California Republic and Caesar's Legion. At first naive to the whole situation, Armita is quickly pulled into a war he wants no part of, yet ultimately can't sit idly by and watch happen, either.

OC x Arcade WAY EVENTUALLY...


	2. Prologue

**Decretum**

**Prologue**

* * *

Manny Vargas awoke with a jolt, the distant echo of a gunshot ringing through his eardrums. Though his mind was in a haze from having woken up so suddenly, in the back of his mind he knew Boone must have just shot down some poor bastard.

He shook his head. No, it wasn't right to label the guys he and Boone took out as "poor bastards," because they all were anything but. Fiends who strayed too far from the outskirts of New Vegas, raiders looking to plunder what (on the surface) appeared to be a defenseless town, the Legion, they were all _sick_ bastards, not _poor_.

With a yawn, Manny threw the covers to the side and slipped out of bed. He didn't know why he was getting up, he just was. Perhaps, he figured, he wanted to get a peek at what Boone had brought down, or perhaps-(and more likely)-he wanted to catch up with his best friend while he was alone and not tied down to that fucking bitch Carla.

As he slowly got dressed, Manny gritted his teeth at the thought of her. Ever since her and Boone got together, all she'd ever done was treat everybody like shit. At first he'd tried to hide his jealousy in that she won over Boone. He tried to be happy for them when they got married, he _tried_ so _hard_ not to say what was on his mind to his best friend, but Carla made it impossible for him. She acted so pompous and entitled, like world owed her something for no reason whatsoever except because she said so. She was typical New Vegas in Manny's mind; a spoiled bitch and a slut. And to think, she got Boone in the end...

Manny stopped and caught himself. _Calm down, man,_ he thought_. _Shaking his head, he left his room and closed the door behind him.

It was nights like this Manny almost wished he'd agreed to take the night shift as opposed to the day. The sky, as it always was, was cloudless and filled with millions of twinkling stars. The moon hung bright and full directly overhead, bathing the wasteland in a soft, white glow. It was sad in a way, to think of how miserable life in the world was, when there still existed things like this night. Then again, Manny told himself, that gunshot going off was just another painful reminder that not everyone was as appreciative of the scenery as Manny. However given his job-which was really nothing more than twelve hours of thinking to himself and the very occasional picking someone off-Manny could understand why not everybody thought like him. If there was one thing he'd learned when transitioning from the constant barrage of chaos and violence in the NCR to the peaceful, mostly mundane duty of guarding Novac, it was that having a lot of free time gave a man plenty of time to think. And think. And think some more.

_Enough of this, man. Back to Boone..._

Manny crossed the parking lot. He slowly climbed the cement stairs into the Dino-Bite Gift Shop and reached for the doorknob, when he stopped suddenly. He saw something out of the corner of his eye, something he didn't know if he was imagining or not. Squinting out past the chain-link fence in front of him, he saw none other than Boone out on the bridge. Boone? What the hell was he doing?

This was interesting; Boone had never, _ever_ left his post on a shift before, or at least not that Manny knew of. Not even to loot a body or anything. Hell, there had been a few times where Manny had visited Boone on his shift and Boone stopped mid-sentence to shoot someone, only to continue to conversation immediately after as if nothing had happened. Even in the NCR when they'd been serving, nothing seemed to faze the guy, so why now...?

Leaning forward to see, Manny saw Boone crouch down and gather a figure in his arms. All right, he couldn't take it anymore; Manny _had_ to know just what in the hell was going on! Trotting down the stairs two at a time, he sprinted out of the parking lot, through the open fence doors, past Dinky, and out into the street where Boone was.

"Boone, man, what the hell is going on?"

Boone didn't answer. He wore an expressionless mask as he brushed past Manny and headed back for Novac.

Manny quickly followed behind him. "Boone, I..." He trailed off when he saw just what-or who-Boone had stopped for.

There, in his best friend's arms, was a teenaged boy wearing a traditional Legion slave dress. Manny couldn't see his face from the angle he was following Boone behind, but he could see a head full of sky-blue hair. In the moon's light is almost looked as though it was glowing, leaving Manny to wonder if maybe that was an effect from being exposed to a large amount of radiation. Whatever, it didn't matter what his hair color was (even though Manny couldn't help but find it very nice.) What mattered was that Boone had picked up an escaped Legion slave.

In an instant Manny's head exploded with questions. Where had he come from? How had he (presumably) escaped the Legion? Was he being followed, is that why Boone had taken a shot? How old was he? What _was_ with the hair? Did he have any family? Was he even still alive?

The last question was the one to reach Manny's lips: "Is he still alive?"

"I don't know," Boone replied flatly. "He collapsed on the bridge. Saw it through my scope."

Manny frowned. Boone had always been brief when it came to talking... Brief... and vague.

Another question formed; "Well... where are you taking him."

"Straus," came Boone's response.

"Ada?"

"Yeah..." The conversation ended there.

The two of them finished the journey in silence. Manny did the honor of knocking on doctor Ada Straus's motel room door since Boone had his hands full. It took a good five minutes and another two of knocking-turned-banging before Ada finally opened the door. "What?" she murmured through a yawn.

Without warning, Boone brushed past Ada into her room and dumped the unconscious teenager onto her bed. Both her and Manny flinched with surprise. "You just expect me to take this case for free?" she asked, irritated. Looking the kid up and down, she added on, "And a Legion slave, no less? Knowing them he's probably got a time bomb in him... somewhere."

"Then deactivate it," was Boone's only response. Turning his back on the slave, he marched past Ada and Manny out the door. Manny watched him descend the stairs of the second floor of the motel and then proceed to resume his position back inside Dinky's mouth. Even after all this time, Manny still couldn't believe how much of a hard-ass his friend was.

Ada appeared to have been watching Boone, too, for after he disappeared behind the door to the Dino-Bite she turned to Manny and said, "Well, I don't suppose you'd like to pick up the tab for your friend there? If you two are going to barge in here in the middle of the night and expect me to do this, I'd think you'd at least have the decency to make it worth my time...?"


	3. Chapter 1: The Decision

**Decretum**

**Chapter One: The Decision**

* * *

The morning after Boone brought him in, Jeanie had for the first time in forever rounded up everyone outside the Dino-Bite for a she labeled a "town meeting." Having never partaken in such a thing before, Manny decided to leave his post for a minute to see what all the commotion was about.

"The slave," someone informed him, "the one Boone brought in."

It didn't take more than a second for the image of Boone carrying the unconscious blue-haired teen to form in his mind. He remembered the whole thing; spotting Boone on the bridge, running up to him, seeing the kid in his arms, delivering him to Ada… Manny still cringed when he remembered Boone dump the poor bastard in Ada's bed and just walk off as though the whole thing never happened. That was so him, and yet so cruel.

Manny frowned. Obviously he wasn't the only one concerned about this—he just didn't think the kid would cause such a ruckus as to lead Jeanie into having the whole town discuss it... Well, not the "whole town" since there was only about fifteen or so people who lived in Novac to begin with. Two of which, he might add, were recluses, one being mentally insane and a bit of a recluse himself, and the other a traveling caravaneer who was not even hypothetically a resident.

"I went in and checked on him this morning, the poor dear," Jeanie said, standing in the open center of the people who had gathered (all fifteen-ish of them.) "Doctor Straus, bless her, informed me that when she was doing an evaluation on him, mid-way through she took hold of his wrist and apparently that caused him to black out."

Hushed murmurs rippled through the crowd. Manny, on the other hand, remained silent and looked around for Boone. Unsurprisingly, he was nowhere to be seen.

"He's alright now," she continued on, "albeit unconscious again as I'm sure you all could guess, but nevertheless he's fine. Right now he's in the lobby, but I can't keep him there, and lord knows I'm getting too far up in my years to be handling a teenager to take him in myself…"

Everyone fell silent, for they knew what Jeanie was getting at. Do we house an escaped Legion slave—who they'll almost certainly be looking for—or do we send him off away from Novac before they do?

"Poor bastard," Ranger Andy whispered under his breath beside Manny, "he somehow manages to run from the Legion only for the town he lands in to want to send him back."

Jeanie cleared her throat. "Since he's so young, I think it would be best if he had a proper caretaker for a little while. I think it's clear he couldn't afford a motel room, and quite frankly I can't afford to _give_ him one, either. Plus, who knows who or what might be out there after the poor dear...?"

_She's beating around the bush,_ Manny thought, _she doesn't want to come out and say he's a—was a—slave…_

Manny looked around, searching for any takers. Not a single person raised their hand, or even so much as hinted they wanted to take him in.

Nobody wanted him; the blue-haired teenaged boy. Nobody wanted the escaped Legion slave who probably wouldn't understand that an act of kindness didn't have to be returned with a sexual favor. In truth, Manny didn't want him anymore than the rest of the town. Though they had been few and far between, he'd dealt with a number of runaway Legion slaves while serving and none of them, he could assure anyone who asked, were right in the head after what they'd gone through. Who knew if this kid was the same as the others? Certifiable, maybe suicidal...? The list of problems he might have (or maybe even cause) unfortunately went on.

Manny glanced over searching for the McBride's. Having no children of their own, he figured they might jump to the occasion, but they were nowhere to be seen. Then again, as he well knew, they were pretty recluse. It would have been either a miracle or sheer dumb luck for Jeanie to have convinced them to show up.

For some reason, Manny's heart sank. He felt sorry for the unknown teenager. It was like Andy said; after however many years of slavery he finally manages to escape, only for the people who take him in wanting to dump him just as quickly as they'd rescued him.

His eyes narrowed in Andy's direction. Almost as if the Ranger read his mind, he said, "Not with my broken arm and leg I'm not."

"I say we feed him to the ghouls," No-Bark's voice came up out of nowhere.

In sync the crowd all turned their attention towards him.

"He's a spy sent by them glowin' molerats up at REPCONN," he said, placing his hands on his hips, "sent to turn us against each other, by gum. Make us suspect one of our own. Someone takes him in, an' the next thing you know the Commies show up when we ain't looking. Haul us off to work in their mines for moon rocks they will."

Out of the corner of his eye, Manny saw Jeanie roll her eyes.

Unfortunately, now that the idea of dumping him was out in the open, people started debating.

"I hate to agree with No-Bark," someone said, "but he has a point. What if someone _does _show up for the kid?"

"Yeah, who knows how many of those Legion fucks they're gonna send out for him? Everyone knows an escaped slave doesn't stay that way for long."

"I think we ought to dump him. Let the Legion find him in someplace that ain't Novac."

The group came to life with conversation. People were "yes-ing" this and "no-ing" that left and right. Arguments broke out from both sides, the supporters being hit with retaliation in why didn't they take him in if they wanted him to stay so bad?

Manny looked over at No-Bark, who had apparently gotten into an argument with himself over how this was exactly what the "Army of the Mudcrab Men" had wanted.

That was it, then, he had no other choice. He had been hoping Boone might come back for him, but his lack of presence made it clear he had no further intentions of helping. (Stupid bitch Carla was probably the one who told him not to.) Swallowing hard, Manny stepped forward and shouted over the crowd, "I'll take him in."

Silence reclaimed the town in a millisecond. A few surprised "huh-s?" arose in spotted places as the people in front of Manny parted for Jeanie to see him.

Taking a deep breath, Manny stared Jeanie dead in the eyes and repeated, "I'll take him in."

For a moment, Manny could have sworn he saw resentment flash through Jeanie's eyes. She hadn't, after all, opposed the idea of getting rid of the mysterious blue-haired guy. Though she didn't say anything whilst everyone was debating, Manny had a feeling she was secretly agreeing with the wave of displeasure the people had for the kid.

Manny himself didn't like what he was signing up for. Perhaps, he pondered, it was his post-NCR urge to help a person in need, or perhaps he was simply lonely—but no matter the reason—he'd be damned if the town was just going to abandon someone who clearly needed their help. If they weren't going to, then he was.

The bitterness faded from Jeanie's eyes. "If that's what you want, then it's settled. Manny will take him in… unless someone else would like to…?"

Everyone remained silent.

"Any further objections…?"

No-Bark seemed to have disappeared.

Jeanie cleared her throat again. "It's settled then, Manny will be taking care of our guest. Come along then, Manny dear, I'll show you to him…"

* * *

Inside the lobby there laid the boy. He looked the same as he had yesterday in Boone's arms; small, weak, and broken. He was sleeping, however judging by his weak whimperings and twitchings, he was most definitely locked in a nightmare. Made sense, all things considered.

As Manny stared him down, he couldn't help but think about Boone, and how much his best friend looked like back when they were in the NCR together. So stone-cold and… _badass_. For a brief moment, Manny was jealous the kid got to be held by Boone.

He shook his head. "Do you know his name?" he asked.

"I'm afraid I don't," Jeanie replied. "All I know is what Doctor Straus told me, in that he's prone to blackouts, his right eye was burned out and doesn't open, and his left leg is crippled beyond repair."

Manny could feel a headache coming on.

Jeanie turned and looked at him. "If you're having second thoughts, dear, nobody will hold it against you."

Something about Jeanie's tone bothered Manny. Though he couldn't quite put his finger on it, there was just… _something_ about her motherly-like voice that seemed _off_ to him. Like she was faking the whole act and was hiding a cold-blooded bitch beneath it all. He didn't know, but for some reason he found himself distrusting her. It was almost as if she wanted him to change his mind so she could abandon the visitor. "Nah, man, I'm taking him. He needs me… especially since nobody else wants him."

Jeanie smiled. "You're as wonderful a man as you are sniper, dear. We're fortunate to have you."

A light blush dusted Manny's cheeks. To hide his reddening face from Jeanie he leaned forward and scooped the kid up into his arms. "Well uh, thanks, man… I guess I should, uh, get him settled in so I can go back to my post."

With a nod to Jeanie, Manny left the lobby and carried the teenager into his motel room. He laid him down in bed and retreated to the door, shutting it closed. "… Maybe I'll stick around for a little—in case he wakes up? Today was pretty slow, after all…"

Going over to his desk, he dragged the chair to the side of the bed and sat down.

Now that he was alone without Jeanie and the whole town breathing down his neck, Manny slouched in his chair exhaustedly. He felt like eons had gone by, even though he knew the whole thing couldn't have lasted longer than twenty minutes—if that.

He straightened up a bit and looked at the kid again.

The teenager—who Manny realized he still didn't know the name of—couldn't have been older than sixteen. He was as thin as a rail with his ribs showing beneath the rags. His hair, bluer than a cloudless sky, was filthy and mangled. Yet, in spite of the list of abnormalities to him, what caught Manny's attention particularly was his face. It had been beautiful once, but the right side of it was almost completely scorched to a sickly purpling color. Though both his eyes were closed, Manny remembered Jeanie saying the right one was sealed permanently shut.

"Damn..."

The more he looked at the kid, the worse and worse Manny felt for him. He looked so alone and helpless; it hurt to think that after all the Hell he'd probably been through nobody wanted to help him. It was sad, really, to think this one kid had caused such an uproar. He hardly looked anymore threatening than a Radroach, however like a Radroach his presence was both unwanted and considered a nuisance. Again Manny felt the same aching feeling in his heart just as he had at the meeting.

In his sleep, Manny's guest muttered something inaudible.

More sympathy. Thinking somehow that it might comfort him, Manny pulled the sheets up and tucked his guest in. He murmured more incoherent ramblings in his sleep, but aside from that did not respond. (Not like Manny was _entirely _expecting him to...)

Manny stood up. As much as he didn't want to, he forced himself to leave the blue-haired teenager alone in his motel room and resume his post watching the road.

* * *

He couldn't have been scanning the wastes for more than a few minutes before a horde of possibilities involving either the kid waking up or the Legion sneaking in and reclaiming him filled Manny's mind. Panic washed over him, and without even thinking he bolted down the stairs two at a time, dashed across the parking lot, and threw the door to his room open. The kid was still sleeping, and in the exact same position as Manny had left him before.

He felt ridiculous and had absolutely no idea where his sudden outburst came from, yet found himself repeating the charade over and over again all day.

Though he didn't run again after the first time, Manny did walk rather hurriedly to his room. Cliff kept asking what was wrong, and Manny kept making up excuses. Every time he left Dinky's stomach he cursed at himself for the lies and said next time for certain he would tell the truth, but never did.

And the cycle repeated.

Not once did the kid budge from his spot, leaving Manny to wonder if he should be grateful or pissed each time he left.

He decided after a while he was neither, and instead found himself becoming concerned. Why wasn't the kid waking up—or moving? Was he dead? Should Manny go grab Ada and have her check him out…?

Finally his shift ended, and Manny walked out of Dinky feeling like he'd just finished wrestling with a Deathclaw. He was exhausted beyond words—so much so he completely missed Boone as he crossed the parking lot—something he'd never _ever_ done before.

_This kid will be the death of me before he even wakes up…_

Almost to his surprise, Manny's guest still wasn't awake yet when he opened the door to his room. The same lingering feeling of dread that had been hovering over him all day quickly overcame Manny, and he _had_ to know if the boy was still alive and whether to call Ada or not.

Scurrying over to the side of the bed, he carefully lifted the sheets up and away from his guest and scanned his body. Manny found that the kid was indeed still breathing. Alive, just not awake.

Collapsing backward into his chair, still by the side of the bed where it had been left earlier, Manny exhaled a sigh of relief. He sat back up and was about to drape the sheets over the kid again, when his eyes fell upon his outfit—or rather almost complete lack thereof.

He'd seen it before; the skimpy patchwork dress that looked like it hadn't been washed in years, but to Manny it felt like he was only now _really_ getting a good look at it. It was short, too short, in fact, for Manny noticed he was seeing more of the guy than he should be. His chest, too; the V-shape was cut low, looking more like it had originally been for a woman and not its current resident. The only thing that didn't make Manny's eyes sore was a nearly flawless white scarf wrapped loosely around the kid's neck. It showed like a diamond in a coal mine.

_Why didn't I notice that before...?_

He crinkled his nose in disgust—not for the unconscious teenager—but for whoever forced him to wear that. Manny could feel his heart breaking again when he caught sight of several bite marks between the kid's legs; no doubt someone's idea of making his position in life known.

_Sick bastards. He can't even be more than seventeen and yet…_

Manny shook his head. That eyesore had to go, and it had to go now. He carelessly dropped the sheets by the teenager's ankles and sat upright in his chair. Pinching the grimy fabric between his thumbs and forefingers, he peeled the dress off up over his head.

The kid didn't move the entire time; he remained locked in his sleep.

Satisfied, Manny got up and left his room briefly to discard of the thing in the dumpster next to the pre-war gas station-turned-workshop. He hurried back into his room, closing and locking the door (just in case the Legion decided to show up) behind him.

When he returned he began to wonder about the scarf. Though it wasn't as, well, _strange_ as the boy's hair, the fact that it looked to be in pristine condition compared to the rest of what he'd been wearing was a bit puzzling. Manny decided to unravel it, but couldn't find the heart to discard it, and instead gently laid it down on the couch.

And there, lying in his bed was the blue-haired teenager. Stark naked, body build of a twig, and covered in more bruises and scars than Manny figured he had ever seen on a single person in his entire life. He noticed right off the bat the bite marks on the neck and chest, leaving him to wonder if the kid had been owned by a cannibal.

The anxiety returned. _Oh God_, he thought, _what if he wakes up without his clothes on and thinks I'm going to…?_ Manny shuddered. _Nuh-uh. I've gotta have something here…_

He looked around, wondering if and where he would keep any spare clothes that he had.

Along with realizing how awful his new roommate's life must have been prior to arriving in Novac, it was also starting to dawn on Manny that he had a really shitty room. All he had was his bed, an end-table with a broken radio, a beat up old couch, a metal table with a terminal he never used on it, and the bathroom with a sink that only ran cold water. He didn't even have a 'fridge for Christ's sake!

Infuriated that it had taken this long for him to realize how much his life was lacking, Manny balled his hands into fists and gritted his teeth. His life revolved so much around protecting Novac that he'd never taken time for himself. Every night he came home too run down from the boredom to do anything but sleep—but now, now he was seeing what had always been there.

The decision had been made.

Now things were going to be different.

Spinning around on his heels, Manny marched out the door across the parking lot and back into Dinky's stomach. Determination burned inside him, threatening to boil over at any moment.

Inside the gift shop, Cliff was shuffling behind the counter ready to pack up for the night. He didn't notice Manny until he looked up from the counter and saw him staring. "Manny," he exclaimed, surprised, "you're back. Can I… help you with something?"

"Yeah man," Manny said, "I need some clothes for the kid I've got staying with me."

Cliff raised an eyebrow. He thought for a moment, before nodding quickly. "Oh, right, the one from the meeting Jeanie called. I would have attended but… you never know when someone's going to pop in... Is that why you kept going back to your room every five minutes today?"

Manny didn't respond.

"... Anyway, I'm afraid I only have this here in stock…"

Cliff turned his back on Manny and unlocked the door behind the counter. He disappeared behind it for a few seconds before he returned with a worn camel-brown zip-hoodie in his hands.

Manny scanned it up and down, and concluded it would be huge on the kid. It was made for an adult-sized male probably, but that sleeping beauty in his room was not of an adult size. After seeing the whole person both with and without clothes, Manny knew.

"Mark got anything?" he asked hopefully.

Cliff frowned, lowering the hoodie. "He's out of town trading," he said with a vague bitterness to his voice. "Last I heard he was heading south for Mojave Outpost. Won't be back for a few weeks… if he makes it back."

Manny exhaled a heavy sigh. That was right; Mark was out because of Manny—because he owed Manny a _huge_ favor. "I'll take it, then," he murmured.

"Five caps."

Reaching into his pocket, Manny fumbled around and came up with only two Nuka Cola's and one Sunset Sarsaparilla. Guarding the town didn't pay, and either Cliff or Jeanie always gave him free meals for his service. He often frequented the community suppers, as well, so really, there would be no reason for Manny to have any money on hand. (Plus he'd spent nearly an hour last night trying to persuade Ada into taking his NCR dollars, which she finally took, however, all of.)

The disappointment must have been evident on his face, for Cliff took the three caps and said, "You know what? Veteran's discount." He handed Manny the hoodie. "Here you go."

Manny perked up like a wilting flower given water. He graciously swiped the hoodie from Cliff's hands. "Thanks so much, man! I… I'll pay you back, I swear."

A small smile pulled at the corners of Cliff's lips. "You keeping the Legion out of town is well enough payment for me, Manny. Don't worry about it; just go home and take care of that new resident of ours. I'm sure he'll wake up soon. Oh, and when he does, be sure to tell him about the Dinos! I may have a spare I can sell just for him."

With a nod, Manny left and returned to his room. Still the kid had yet to wake up, although when Manny sat down he noticed that his roomie wasn't locked in nearly as deep a sleep as he was before. Cliff was right; he'd be waking up any second.

Manny could feel his heart pounding inside his chest as he pulled the hoodie down over the blue-haired person's body. His hands were shaking as he lifted the arms by the wrists and slipped them through the arm holes.

Just as he had feared, the hoodie was huge on the boy. The sleeves covered his hands by at least three inches each, and the base almost went to his knees. It looked like an oversized dress; although Manny mused it covered him far better than the first one had.

"Mnnnh…"

The moment of truth had arrived.


End file.
